
“When I see and experience something I like, I taste it. The inspiration to create rises from my need to give form and unfold the shapes and colors I feel.”
Art is a family tradition for Grazia Fortuna Ward. Born in Vicenza, where she lives and works part of the year, Grazia spends the other in the US, confronting with the contemporary avant-garde.
After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts, Grazia Fortuna Ward dedicates her life to painting: an artistic journey that begins with the figurative and tonal realism and moves towards an abstract and informal style in the 90's.
She creates environmental dimension works for studios and private homes and collaborates with collectors and architects for settings and locations. Among them, the projects with famous architect Alvaro Siza stand like a remarkable moment of Grazia’s artistic experience.
The transition from painting to jewelery creation is sealed by the cooperation of Grazia Fortuna Ward with the Guggenheim Foundation in Venice. Back then, the extraordinary story of “Art to Wear” has its start.
Poetry of Art to wear
The creations of Grazia Fortuna Ward suggest the feeling that matter has been shaped in its pure essence to become a unique and unrepeatable work of art. If the genesis of Grazia, as an artist, finds roots in a materic, volumetric painting, in a style inspired by the materials of nature, the development of this originary inspiration can be found today in her jewels - interpreters of an unconventional beauty that combines the creative lightness of the painter’s brush, the balance of a fine sculpture, the poetic charme of a woman’s tale.
The artistic path of Grazia Fortuna Ward - hosted over time by a number of galleries in Italy and abroad - pours from the canvas into the object of design, the jewel, and brings art to a dimension to wear, sublime though accessible. Earrings are the first creative subjects of this transition: small jewels, almost an initial trial, shy but finally powerful in the result. The need to tell more and to expand the exploration grows: thus the necklaces, a production that allows a wider narrative space, a deeper search of art applied to jewelry.
The story that Grazia tells translates into GFW brand which, each season, offers collections of hand-made accessories, always featuring a vibrant and original personality.
Natural resins and powders, combined with pure gold, give life to art objects that seem to emerge from the earth, from the bark of the trees, from the rocks, from the ripples of the matter. GFW jewels transfer emotions and complete the naturalness of the female body with elegance and unmistakable style.
Main personal art exhibitions

Galleria D'arte Matteo Pala - Vicenza 2003
Galleria Andrea Arte - Vicenza 2005
Galleria Ghelfi - Vicenza 2007
Galleria Abita - Verona 2006
Gallery Art Nation - Seattle 2004
Yongone “Unitled Works" - Seoul 2005
Windermere Art Gallery - Seattle 2005
Delegazione Guggenheim Foundation 2006
Alvaro Siza with Grazia Fortuna Ward - Villa Colonnese 2008
Galleria The New Ars Italica "Premeval Shapes" - Milan 2007
Galleria Matteo Lo Greco - Venice 2006
Galleria The New Ars Italica - Milan 2007
Museo D'arte Moderna Ca'pesaro - Venice 2008
Galeria Interescritorio - Lisbon 2008
Magazzini Del Sale - Venice 2008